What does the purity of drugs tell us about the drugs market? And which drugs are the most adulterated? Sam Hart talks to drug intelligence expert Les King about quality control in the illicit drugs economy. Lucky dips (PDF)

The cocaine and ecstasy markets are splitting in two, with young people and students being the major consumers in an expanding industry in cheaper, lower quality products. Max Daly takes a look at the results of this year’s UK wide…

How useful is it to talk about rogue batches of drugs? By Harry Shapiro What do the following have in common? Green apple and rolex; red dragon; yellow grenade; superman; teddy bears and blue ninja turtles. Following well-publicised incidents over…

A snapshot Druglink survey carried out among frontline drug services, senior DAT staff, police and service users in 18 towns and cities across the UK has found the heroin drought is widespread, ongoing and the most severe of its kind on record. Five month drought the longest…

Laboratory analysis consistently reveals that drugs are rarely cut with noxious substances. How is it then that every time a journalist goes out on the street to investigate the drug scene, they turn up evidence to suggest that dangerous adulteration…

There is a widespread notion that dangerous adulteration adds considerably to the risks of illicit drug use. It’s often implied that users play a kind of pharmacological Russian roulette. In fact, the risks from dangerous cutting agents are negligible. Cutting…

DrugWise infographic on ecstasy deaths (PDF) The reasons and some statistics Ecstasy-related deaths have always received a substantial level of media coverage, and proportionately much more than many other drugs. One study of drug-related deaths in Scotland in the 1990s…